The Proposal Job
by fanfic100596
Summary: Takes place 2 years after the series finale. The three remaining leverage crew members go on a job. They steal what's been stolen, meet some old friends, but not everything is as it seems. Oh...and they're in Hawaii. Rated M just to be safe, however I doubt it really is.
1. Chapter 1 - The Mark

"Hey guys, I got doughnuts," said the wiry blonde as she placed a box of a dozen colorful and overly-sugared doughnuts on the counter.

"Ooh, thanks Babe," said Hardison as he walked up to her and pecked her on the lips causing a smile to form on Parker's face.

"Damnit Parker, you took a bite out of every one of these," growled Eliot who had made his way over to the box. With the relationship between Hardison and Parker still going strong for about two and a half years, she had adopted some Hardison qualities that warranted the occasional "damnit" from Eliot. Parker nudged Hardison as if to tell him to tend to her small work and Hardison obliged.

"How is she going to know which one she wants if she doesn't try each one?" asked Hardison. Maybe a couple of years ago Hardison would have sided with Eliot but having spent intimate time with Parker these behaviors were normal to him.

"Oh, I don't know, she bought the dough…" Eliot trailed off as he gave a glare at Parker who seemed very interested in Hardison's elbow before finally conceding and shooting her head up.

"I didn't have enough cash for a dozen, so I just grabbed some without really looking and left the cash I had. What? I'm a thief!" Hardison merely smirked as he grabbed a pink doughnut covered in M&Ms with a small Parker sized bite in it and headed to the couch. Parker was on his heels as Eliot went to the kitchen to get a mug of coffee to accompany his pastry.

"Babe, we found a job while you were gone. Check this out." He grabbed his remote and the hi-tech, multi-screen set up was filled with pictures of a middle-aged Caucasian male with short, flowing brunette hair with the early signs of silver streaks beginning to emerge.

"Is this another black book bad guy?" the thief asked. Ever since the acquisition of the black book Leverage International took off. Like Parker imagined, a lot of crews and individuals wanted to get in with the Leverage crew. In the two years since Nate and Sophie retired, the remaining three managed to setup several Leverage crews with thieves, grifters, hackers, and hitters who all wanted to take down corruption or help the little man. Of course, being thieves, the crews would help people and sometimes help themselves too when a mark was particularly affluent. Leverage International spanned six continents and at the moment had taken down about a fifth of the thousand or so corrupt business people in the black book all with the help of the founding three members who still resided in the brewpub in Portland.

"Nah, I found out about him when I was playing World of Warcraft last night. My buddy, in the same faction came on crying. This guy is amazing, so I tried to get him to focus on the game, but he was really down."

"Wait, you played WoW without me?" Parker questioned with an annoyed countenance. "I thought you said you weren't playing and that's why I got the pizza last night."

"Will you get to the point Hardison," snarled Eliot before the hacker could defend himself.

"Sure. Orson Rand, he's the COO of AquaGen, a company based in Hawaii that works with a lot of cutting edge technology that utilizes hydro-electrics and dynamics in order to make a boat load of crazy inventions. Rand got to the company about a year ago and it's not his first. Mid- level companies hire this man and he comes and ruins the company. Based on his financials he does this, so he can have his friends down at Wall Street buy up company shares for cheap and cut him a piece of the profits. Then he steals his employee's ideas, boots them, and then rebuilds the company with the help of loyal employees who are too scared to do what's right," Hardison explained all this as the other two listened intently.

"So, he's committing a controlled corporate sabotage in order to inside trade," interjected Eliot.

"Not just that, he also cases out employees to see who has the ability to help the company quickly rebound so he can also make money as the man who saved the "dying" company," added Parker. Her face scrunched up. She really didn't like this guy. He was like an amalgamation of a bunch of bad guys they've faced in the past.

"Exactly. And that's where my friend Robert Giardono, a.k.a. BobbyG1234567890 comes in. He's an engineer for AquaGen and he just developed a high-powered battery that charges using wave energy in the ocean. Based on some of these calculations he sent over, these batteries can change the world. Two days ago, Rand stole his research, slandered BobbyG's reputation, and fired him."

Everyone then looked at Parker. Ever since Nate left Parker had taken on the role of mastermind. Although, the leverage crew considered replacing Nate and Sophie they never could. So instead of replacing they decided to get much better at all their individual talents. Parker had learned a lot about computers in the past 2 years (Eliot tried but still remained as technologically incompetent as ever). Hardison had become quite the pickpocket and could even pick a lock in under ten seconds. All three had become pretty good grifters; Especially Eliot, who specialized in encounters with the fairer sex. In the beginning, it was hard but as time passed the three became a cohesive team that could steal another country if they had to.

"Ok boys…," Parker's eyes narrowed, and her mouth slid into a smirk, "Let's go steal a battery… In bathing suits!" Hardison gawked after his girlfriend delivered her line and walked away. Eliot merely grumbled as usual. Parker turned to wink at Hardison before going upstairs to pack her bags.

Hardison nearly tripped across the room to try and catch up to the departing thief. "Babe, you need any help picking out a bathing suit because I'd love to –" His sentence was cutoff as he reached their shared bedroom and hastily closed the door.

* * *

 **I'm terrible at keeping up with my writing but this is going to be a relatively short fic so I'm going to finish. I love Leverage and recently rewatched it and was inspired to write this. Please enjoy. Also, reviews are welcomed, appreciated, and encouraged.**


	2. Chapter 2 - R&R

The crew had arrived in Maui at around 12:30 HST and were at their hotel about half an hour later. Parker had intended to meet Robert with Hardison at around 1:00 but Hardison insisted, quite persistently, she go to the room and unpack. She assumed he just wanted to geek out with Bobby before getting down to business, so she trusted Hardison and went to their suite. Eliot helped bring all the bags up to the room while Hardison had the talk with BobbyG. When they opened the door to the luxurious room Eliot dropped Hardison and Parker's bag in the common area and entered the conjoined room of the top floor suite Hardison had "procured" for them. Hardison also hacked the hotel's computers and made it so they were the only people booked for the next week. Parker picked up hers and Hardison's luggage and walked to their bedroom where she was met with a bed covered in rose petals and about a dozen boxes of chocolates. Parker's face lit up. The corners of her mouth stretching as far as they could and her eyes becoming tenuous lines. Parker quickly unpacked. If Hardison was going to surprise her she was going to get him back. She grabbed a sexy black bikini that Hardison seemed to enjoy last night and hurriedly scribbled a rendezvous note before heading to the pool with a box of chocolates.

In about fifteen minutes Hardison wrapped up his meeting and walked in the suite. "Hey babe, how's that chocolate treating you?" Hardison waited for his girlfriend to run out and jump in his arms. Instead he was met by the sound of Eliot arriving.

"She's not here, I heard her leave the room. So, did you get it done?" Eliot inquired.

"Yeah, you know I got this handled. The con is set up, all the pieces are in place, and all the information is up to date. But I don't wanna blow my cover so I'm gonna go check on my girl, 'scuse me." Hardison began to walk to his room.

"Hardison wait up." Hardison paused at his door frame. "I'm happy for you man. Let's do this right." Hardison face notably softened at the genuineness of his best friend's words. He simply nodded in return.

Hardison entered his room and saw the note Parker left for him. He scanned the small piece of paper and began to sweat. After he completed his scan he stumbled across the room to the balcony and looked down towards the pool to confirm the validity of the message. Stories down he saw the sleek body of his thief snaking her gracefully through the water. After forcefully ending his trance he hastily removed his clothes and replaced them with his bathing suit. Hardison flew down to the pool. He found Parker, cozy, lounging in one of the VIP cabanas surrounding the pool. She had a colorful drink in her hand with one of the fancy umbrellas and everything. A box of chocolate pretzels laid open on the chair. Next to her on the table was also a tall glass filled with a fizzy orange liquid. She had ordered him an orange soda he noticed.

Parker saw her boyfriend on the other side of the pool. Parker wasn't sure if he realized he had ceased moving and adopted staring instead. His mouth was ever so slightly ajar, and he sat there baking in the Hawaiian sunlight. Parker decided to do some gawking of her own. The sun casts a film over the deep skin on Hardison's bare chest. The first comings of sweat provided a glisten that highlighted the muscles throughout the hacker's chest. Parker thought back to the time she asked why he wasn't scrawny like other computer geeks. He had told her he wanted to make geeks look cool, so he made sure he was as good looking as possible. Parker was glad he had made this choice in his younger years. She was also glad they had the hotel to themselves. Hardison would for sure attract some attention looking like that and she hadn't stabbed someone with a fork in about a year. She was hoping to keep her streak unbroken. Parker almost broke it a few hours ago on a particularly handsy flight attendant who tried to slide Hardison her number. Parker burned the number in front of the flight attendant's face to her horror. Everyone wondered how she managed to get the a small blow torch on the airplane, but everyone was too scared to ask. Suffice it to say, that flight attendant didn't return to tend to Hardison. The blonde didn't realize in her reverie that her hacker had finally escaped his stupor and made his way to the cabana.

"Damn girl, you look amazing," complimented Hardison, a smile engulfing his face.

Parker smirked, "You don't look too bad yourself. Thanks for the chocolates."

"You liked it?" the dark-skinned man confirmed.

"Liked it? I loved it. The only way it could have been better is if you replaced the rose petals with a hundred-dollar bills. Hardison made a mental note of that.

"So, how was BobbyG?" She noticed his face panic and fall a little before brightening up again. Parker suspected she had almost ruined the mood with shop talk.

"He's doing a little better, but I'll brief you later. For now, it's time for some R&R." Hardison crawled onto the second chair in the hut. It was the thief's face that fell this time. She was half hoping he would come and lay with her on her chair. Or more accurately, she wanted to lay on top of him as the chair was too small for the both of them. She knew he had gotten the note. Her boyfriend, however, looked content sipping his orange soda as he typed away on his phone. Parker decided to try and attract his attention. She had the box of pretzels at her side and took to chewing them loudly. Parker knew pretzels had a special meaning between them, thus she was sure he would get the hint. Instead the hacker got up and made his way towards the exit.

"Are you going swimming!?" Parker pressed incredulously. "Did you NOT hear the pretzels?"

His back was turned as he answered, "Uhm no, and I heard them. I just went to zip this up girl –" After a slight pause he turned and added "and to do this." He pressed a button on his phone and a speaker from outside started playing a smooth, romantic melody. The couples shared a lustful visage. Hardison then pounced on the blonde who let out a yelp followed by giggling.

After enjoying each other's company for about half an hour the couple took a quick swim to cool themselves off and then made their way to the elevator. On the ride up Parker looked reverently at her companion. Over the course of their relationship she had come to understand why Archie would always tell her that feelings are just distractions. She was staring at a six foot plus distraction all the time. But what Archie didn't tell her was about when the job was done. Having someone who can make you feel like you're jumping off a never-ending building when you're just simply out on a date is worth every risk. Jobs come and go; but Hardison, he was consistent, solid. And for someone who has jumped off her fair share of buildings she knows if you don't have a solid anchor, you won't make it out alive.

The couple reached the room and showered before meeting in the common area. There, the Hacker briefed the team and Parker came up with a plan of attack. With all the details worked out everyone dispersed and prepared for the tomorrow's fun.


End file.
